Tuesday, March 20, 2012

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Tym Morrison) And Lots Of Assorted News!!

It's time for another news post, as we're clearing out a lot of back stories from our cache on this warmer-than-usual Tuesday afternoon! Today, we have news on an upcoming locally-relevant tribute album, the whereabouts of a local concert venue, Mike Cliffe's latest material, and how you can help Frightlight play a major concert, but first, here's a LOCAL CONCERT ALERT!!

Caveman Morrison frontman Tym Morrison will indeed be back at Bossy's Pub N' Grub on Pim Street this Saturday! This will be Tym's 12th straight Saturday set at the former Smack Daddy's, and his 11th during that span at an afternoon matinee timeslot, so if you're up for some acoustic hard rock covers in a more intimate setting during the day, you know where they'll be this weekend! Like his other Bossy's shows, he should be on at 2:00 PM on Saturday afternoon, there's no cover charge, and I assume it's all ages given the time and restaurant setting. For more details, visit the official Facebook event page! It's nice to see Tym rocking Bossy's once again, and with this series going strong and Caveman Morrison's return imminent, things are only looking up for Tym musically this spring! Check the above links for more details, and become a fan of Bossy's Facebook page (that I only just discovered yesterday) at this location!

Next up, remember last month when we mentioned the planned David Gold tribute album featuring covers of Woods of Ypres songs by bands who David befriended and influenced? Well, the full track listing is now out for it, and barring band dropouts, it appears to be final, so what's in store? According to the Facebook group for the album (entitled "A Heart of Gold: A Tribute to Woods of Ypres"), it will be a double disc release with 18 covers of Woods of Ypres songs from the band's 5 numbered albums & their "Home" single. 2 or 3 are taken from each, except for Woods of Ypres' debut "Against The Seasons", which will see 4 of it's 5 tracks covered. Among the confirmed bands are Novembers Doom, Empyrean Plague, Gypsy Chief Goliath,Panzerfaust, Pagan Ritual, and Eclipse Eternal, who will all be at one or both of next month's David Gold tribute shows here & in Toronto (note that the previously listed Kittie aren't on the current track listing.) Among other notable contributions: It looks like The Governor from the popular metal podcast The Governor's Ball and "friends" will do an intro (possibly "The Looming of Dust in the Dark"?), while members of Woods of Ypres (not sure which ones) will guest with Gypsy Chief Goliath for their cover of "Shards of Love", which should be really cool!

Check the above links for complete current details, and hopefully this album is a huge success, so stay tuned for more updates as they come in! Also check out the above links for details on how you can submit Woods of Ypres covers for online posting even if they can't make the CD, or to submit photos & remembrances that could make the tribute album!

Thirdly today, prolific local solo guitarist Mike Cliffe has posted a handful of new solo songs onto his online pages! Three new solo tracks were posted over the past month onto his Reverbnation page, those being a rough jam version of a solo jazzy/rock number named "Giblets", a template idea for a new hard rock song named "What Is This", and a rockabilly-style number named "Champagne", so check the above links to hear these new tracks! I like "What Is This" the most, but all show nice creativity and diversity, especially on "Champagne", even if they still need some extra fine tuning. Also new for Mike's solo material is a strange new original song named "Triangle Sun", which was posted onto his YouTube channel on Sunday, and though it's a rare Mike solo track featuring his vocals, that makes this song very odd. He spoke and sang random words that were filtered and processed into a low almost robotic tone, and he tried to guess what he sang for comedic effect in the video below, which is amusing overtop of some well written guitar work! Maybe you guys can decipher his singing better than he can? Check out "Triangle Sun" below, and much more from Mike at the above links!

Also in today's news, local horror punk/metal quintet are giving the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands another shot in their quest to play the Vans Warped Tour! They've tried in the previous couple of years to qualify, and they're giving it another go this year, so here's what you should know! For each venue on this year's Warped Tour, the top 100 voted bands will be judged by industry professionals, with four bands selected to compete at the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands stage at their area's Warped Tour this summer, where winners could receive cash, prizes, concert appearances, and much more, so click here for full details. Frightlight are aiming to make it onto the Toronto stop on this year's Warped Tour, to be held at The Molson Ampitheatre on July 15th, and as of right now, they're in 36th place out of all bands trying out for the Toronto battle with 723 votes! That's a good sign, as they're in the range to be considered, but extra votes to propel their visibility and support their efforts are always welcome, so click here to vote for them! You'll need a free account to vote, but getting one is quick and painless. Let's help Frightlight go to Toronto in July, so vote A.S.A.P.!

And finally, I wanted to note something about the whereabouts of a local concert venue. You may have noticed that the SMS hasn't plugged anything in terms of new shows at Feedback (the former Foggy Notions) since December. I've been wanting to address it's whereabouts for a bit, but with it's Facebook page being taken down recently, I thought I might as well mention it now while I have it in mind. From what I understand, lease of the Foggy's location was transferred to new management in early January, and the new leaseholders are the guys from Coch's Corner, who are apparently doing more extensive renovations to the interior. I'm in no position to speculate on why this happened, but I don't believe it was due to any fault or error on the part of Feedback's management. It was surprising to see Feedback end so quickly after their October launch, as Rich had things in great working order last fall, but hopefully a new bar from the same management opens up down the road! As for what's going to happen to Foggy's, I don't know if Coch's Corner is fully moving there or if it's going to be a separate bar/concert venue, but I have seen external construction of some kind outside of the Coch's entrance at the Days Inn lately, for what that's worth. If I hear anything, I'll let you guys know for sure!

That's all for today, but stay tuned for more news and notes shortly, including this month's YouTube Channel Profile on Thursday and our Kiss Battle of the Bands Profile on Friday! Thanks everyone!